Studied RCM, Christ Church Oxford and LOC. 1970-1974 music staff in Wuppertal and Hamburg and musical assistant at Bayreuth. Joined WNO 1976. A Wagner enthusiast from youth, assisted Reginald Goodall on Die Walküre, Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal. During this period for WNO he conducted Fidelio, The Greek Passion, Parsifal, Das Rheingold, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung; since assisting Sir Charles Mackerras from 1987, conducted all Mozart’s operas from Idomeneo to La clemenza di Tito; Tristan, Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos and Die Frau ohne Schatten also feature in his repertoire. In 1992 he assisted Boulez on Pelléas et Mélisande, while more recent performances include Leonore, Parsifal (also New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, 2006), Katya Kabanova, Khovanshchina, Il trovatore, The Sacrifice (broadcast and now issued on Chandos CD), The Magic Flute. For RWCMD Albert Herring, The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, Suor Angelica.
For Longborough Festival, after several cycles of the shortened CBTO Ring Cycle, he is building the complete version with director Alan Privett: 2007-8 Das Rheingold, July 2010 Die Walküre (with Alwyn Mellor and Jason Howard) and Siegfried in 2011. For Glyndebourne, following Tristan and Isolde, he assisted Vladimir Jurowski on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and conducted a performance in 2011.

Photo Credit: Brain Tarr